ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Islamic State militants are gaining $40 million-$50 million per month through selling crude oil from oil fields the extremist group controls in Iraq and Syria, Ibrahim Bahr al-Oloum, a member of Iraq's parliamentary energy committee and a former oil minister, told the Associated Press on Friday.
ISIS is producing about 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) from occupied oil fields in Syria and around 10,000-20,000 bpd from Iraq, Oloum told the AP.
The AP reported “oil sales are the main source of income of the terrorist organization and the main key to maintain their rule over their self-declared caliphate in both Iraq and Syria.”
It is believed that ISIS militants sell crude oil to smugglers at a discounted price, sometimes $35 per barrel, and in some cases as low as $10 per barrel, compared to just under $50 a barrel on international markets, Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP in separate interviews.
The oil used to be smuggled in fleets of giant tanker trucks, but due to coalition airstrikes, smaller tankers are being used now, the Iraqi officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press, said.
According to a UN report released in November 2014, ISIS made $1.6 million producing and exporting oil each day.
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